UK Continental Shelf

The UK Continental Shelf is the region of waters surrounding the United Kingdom, in which the country claims mineral rights. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located This principally refers to the North Sea, where there are large resources of hydrocarbons. The North Sea is a marginal, Epeiric sea of the Atlantic Ocean on the European Continental shelf. In Organic chemistry, a hydrocarbon is an Organic compound consisting entirely of Hydrogen and Carbon. The North Sea is also bordered by Norway, Denmark and The Netherlands. The North Sea is a marginal, Epeiric sea of the Atlantic Ocean on the European Continental shelf. Norway ( Norwegian: Norge ( Bokmål) or Noreg ( Nynorsk) officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Constitutional The Kingdom of Denmark ( ˈd̥ænmɑɡ̊ (archaic ˈd̥anmɑːɡ̊ commonly known as Denmark, is a country in the Scandinavian region of northern Europe The Netherlands ( Dutch:, ˈnedərlɑnt is the European part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which consists of the Netherlands the Netherlands A median line, setting out the domains of each of these nations was established by mutual agreement between them.

Responsibility for the UKCS rests with the Department of Trade and Industry, who awards licences to oil companies to produce hydrocarbons from specific areas and regulates how much they can produce over what period. The Department of Trade and Industry was a United Kingdom government department which was disbanded with the announcement of the creation of the Department for Business The petroleum industry includes the global processes of exploration, extraction, refining, transporting (often by Oil tankers and pipelines In Organic chemistry, a hydrocarbon is an Organic compound consisting entirely of Hydrogen and Carbon.

The DTI, as is the custom with offshore oil resources, has divided the UKCS into rectangular blocks, numbered from the North-West going East, then South. These blocks are then further subdivided. This then forms the block number for a particular development. For example, the Harding oilfield, which resides in a fairly northern position, is in block 9, subdivision 23, denoted "9/23" (9/23b specifically to differentiate it from the Gryphon oilfield). The Harding oilfield is a small field operated by BP, in the mid North Sea, approximately North-East of Aberdeen.

See also